July 19, 2026 · 4 min read
Reading UTM data without lying to yourself
Attribution reports are only as honest as the tags on your links — and the traffic you cannot tag.
UTM reports answer a narrow question well: of the orders that carried a tag, which campaigns did they come from.
Start with direct and none
Sales by UTM Source almost always shows a large untagged bucket. That is not a failure — it is untagged traffic, returning customers and channels that strip parameters. Read the rest as a share of what is tagged, not of all revenue.
Tag consistently or do not bother
Facebook, facebook and FB become three sources. Agree on lowercase, agree on the source and medium vocabulary, and stick to it.
Judge on revenue, not orders
A campaign with fewer, larger orders often beats one with more, smaller ones. Sales by UTM Campaign shows both, so compare revenue and average order value side by side before shifting budget.